Anti-gay Uganda's premier backs pride march in protest hack

Websites defaced by Anonymous chums

Gay-rights activists have vandalised the Ugandan prime minister's website in a protest against the African country's discriminatory laws.

The site was rewritten to announce that Premier Amama Mbabazi would back a gay pride march and apologise for the mistreatment of homosexuals in the nation. Screengrabs of the digital graffiti were circulated on social networking sites. The Uganda Justice Law and Order Sector website was also reportedly hit by hackers.

An activist named @DramaSett3r claimed responsibility on Twitter for the attacks, which he said were carried out by an Anonymous-affiliated hacking crew called The Elite Society.

Ambrose Ruyooka, commissioner for the Information Communications Technology ministry, said the breaches had been rectified.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, where gay people face the constant threat of physical assault as well as a cold shoulder from society. A controversial draft law, which seeks to increase jail sentences for homosexual acts from 14 years to life imprisonment, was put before the Ugandan parliament earlier this year.

The bill, first tabled in 2009, initially proposed a death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" - defined as sex acts involving a child, a HIV-positive person, a disabled individual or a "serial offender" - but this provision has been dropped, the BBC reports. ®